I am realizing the biggest problem with writing a gardening blog. In the winter, there was never anything interesting in the garden to write about. Now that it's spring, there is so much to write about but so little time to write!
I have started lots of seedlings, which are growing under lights in the basement. I have removed last fall's leaves from my gardens and noticed new growth. (Oregano! Chives! Peppermint! Sage! Julia even picked a bunch of second-year parsley already!) But it's too early to plant much outside besides peas, greens, and cole crops.
We have done a lot this past week, though. The weather has been gorgeous -- sunny and 70s all week. I'll have to catch up a little at a time, as I can't write everything now. (Back to school. Ugh.)
Ever since I'd discovered the book Square Foot Gardening (in our Lansdowne-gardening days), I've always wanted to try actual square-foot gardening. So this year, Dana bought me the newest edition, and I am going to try a few SFGs with my smaller crops. (Meaning, those I'm not planting lots and lots of plants.) So, on the last Saturday in March, Dana and I went out to the farmhouse and built a 4' x 8' SFG raised bed. I planted 4 squares of onion sets (they were starting to sprout already), 4 squares of lettuce (various types), 2 of spinach, 1 of turnips, and 1 of carrots.
On April 3, we spent the whole day working in the farmhouse garden. James built some (hopefully) squirrel- and rabbit-proof cages out of PVC and chicken wire, so I was able to cover my SFG. (Someone had already dug up some of my onions!) I planted 8 squares of cole seedlings (2 broccoli, 2 kale, 2 collards, 2 bok choi -- one seedling in each square) and 1 square of onion seedlings (hoping to get scallions!). Hoping the new cage works.
I also planted 246 MORE pea seeds (same kind as last month). And James built a HUGE cage for that plot. (No SFG here!) We didn't have time to finish it, but hopefully we can get back to do that before the seeds come up and the animals eat the seedlings.
Okay...back to grading papers. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the flowers and the fruit trees, and maybe even the baby bunnies in Xing Hua's garden. Sigh.
